New Aroostook hangout spot has Maine’s greatest Tv set
CARIBOU, Maine — A large new entertainment venue in Caribou is resurrecting a popular cafe and bowling alley from the previous Loring Air Drive Base.
Evergreen Lanes and Rendezvous Cafe opened final Tuesday at 60 Access Highway with 12 bowling lanes, a bar and cafe and the biggest tv in Maine, developer Shawn Pelletier mentioned.
At 35,000 sq. ft, it’s Caribou’s major cafe and party space. It also resurrects 10-pin bowling in northern Maine, which disappeared in 1994 when Loring shut.
Pelletier labored with Hilda Quinones and her son, Justin Quinones, on the bowling alley. Hilda Quinones realized Pelletier had acquired the Entry Highway setting up and reached out. A discussion with Wayne Langley, the most modern proprietor of the first Rendezvous Cafe in Limestone, influenced Pelletier to increase in a restaurant.
A Limestone native, Pelletier had fond memories of the restaurant and Evergreen Lanes.
“My household was not in the armed service, but a good deal of the army little ones went to college in Limestone. Evergreen was in which we hung out,” Pelletier said. “The Rendezvous has been all around since the 50s and was constantly popular with the navy folks. People today will notify you it has the finest pizza they’ve ever had.”
Even following the foundation closed, people stored coming to the Rendezvous, Langley explained. He applied the identical mystery recipes passed down from the authentic owner, Edmund Owen.
Past tumble Langley marketed the recipes to Pelletier, closed the Limestone cafe and agreed to train the new Rendezvous kitchen workers.
Pelletier owns flats and has also invested in Northern Maine Brewing Business and Hilltop Heights Senior Living in Caribou.
The Evergreen/Rendezvous task has been two several years in the producing. Offer chain troubles delayed the opening several moments considering that July. Pelletier pushed back again the opening to late October, then early December, and contractors completed in early January. Pelletier held a number of comfortable openings prior to the formal Jan. 24 opening.
The preliminary projected price tag was $4.7 million, but greater transport and gear obtain costs pushed up the final cost tag, which Pelletier declined to specify.
Evergreen is the next of Pelletier’s investments, together with Hilltop Heights, to advantage from Caribou’s Tax Increment Financing program.
Individuals will be invited to look at athletics events on the Rendezvous’ substantial 9-by-16-foot television.
The company also has a bowling professional shop, arcade, personal meeting and event space, and a 40-by-50-foot outside patio. The eating and sports activities bar space seats 250.
Hilda and Justin Quinones function in the professional shop and aid with the bowling alley.
The new Rendezvous pretty much has a piece of the earlier: the refurbished 1950s-era neon cafe indicator gleams previously mentioned the front entrance.
Langley has expended 50 a long time in the restaurant company and is glad to assistance preserve the Rendezvous spirit alive, he claimed. The menu presents most initial merchandise, like the domestically popular pizza, meatball grinders, spaghetti, roast beef subs, burgers and appetizers.
“The Rendezvous was usually a spouse and children put and we continue to want it to be a location for families,” Langley said. “It’s a sporting activities bar, a bowling alley and an entertainment venue. It’s the same Rendezvous ambiance, but substantially additional than I at any time imagined it could be.”
The spot has only been open for a week, but already hundreds have visited from the region and exterior Aroostook, Pelletier reported.
Snowmobilers Jessica Libby, Tim York and Sara Farnham, all of Mapleton, stopped by the Rendezvous bar Friday. All three claimed they will return with family members and close friends.
“There’s a wonderful environment here,” Libby stated. “I assume this will carry a great deal of men and women to the spot.”
That is just what Langley and Pelletier want to see.
This fall, Evergreen Lanes will start out presenting community bowling leagues. As a member of the United States Bowling Congress, Evergreen will at some point host condition league championships, drawing in players and spectators from throughout the country.
Drawing extra people today to Caribou will develop into all the additional vital as the town looks to be a far more sought-right after put for out of doors recreation and leisure, Pelletier mentioned.
“We want this to be a spot, a little something special for the location that will draw in folks, the identical way that we might go to Bangor or Portland to go to sure destinations,” Pelletier mentioned.
Correction: An previously variation of this report misstated the dimension of the out of doors patio.